There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games”is something I heard Ernest Hemingway once said…well in this case MotorsportactuallyISa game!There are nobouldersorbullsin Rallyman GT,buttherearecars, corners, crashes,andchampions!

Usually buy Tabletop Gaming in the shops? Don’t worry, you can get copies of the magazine direct from us, with free UK delivery Rallyman is easy to learn even if the rulebook seems quite lengthy at first. Simply put, it can all be boiled down to “Speed > Distance > Position” and “Place Dice, Roll Dice”. Losing dice from your available pool, akin to losing gears or brakes failing, can only be repaired by heading into the pits. The puzzleof movement and gearingis balanced with aneed to manage the level of risk each turn.Attemptinga“flat-out”roleearly on may be necessaryto ensure safetynearer the end, but it could go wrong…This risk versus reward mechanic is where the game shines but, as Sir Sterling Moss once put it, to achieve anything in this game you must be preparedto dabble in the boundary of disaster.It can (and will) all go wrong at some point!With an expansion, the new edition of Rallyman: Dirt can be made compatible with Rallyman: GT, allowing for even further options.

Championship & World Tour–addingextra tiles, real-world circuits(World Tour)and rules for multiple rounds scoringpointsas you go(Championship). Despite its limited availability, the racing board game managed to amass a passionate cult following over the years, including a healthy competitive scene with monthly challenges, tournaments and a two-day Rallyman World Cup held in France. Focus tokens can only be used when taking the safer option, but have the caveat that they can only be spent on unrolled dice and increase their cost per dice banked (the first costing 1, the second 2 and so on…) meaning a hefty supply can dwindle as the race goes on. Rallyman: DIRT by Jean-Christophe Bouvier is a competitive rally racing game for 1-6 players. Games typically last 60-120 minutes.

Players plan their turn, placing dice on the lanes they wish to advance. The catch is, some of the faces on these dice show ‘hazards’. If players roll over a certain number of hazards across their dice, they’ll wipe out! The cars are small but intricately detailed and anyone that knows their cars will make out the inspiration behind them. There are a lot of tokens in the box; coloured gear tokens for each car, damage tokens and focus tokens which are the most abundant. Whilst playing with friends we managed to fill two jars full of them. But considering we hoarded piles of them during gameplay, the amount is probably justifiable. The dice all have a good weight to them. They are nicely coloured to help differentiate between the types and gear numbers. Rallyman was created and self-published in 2009 by French designer Jean-Christophe Bouvier. The original Rallyman board game was followed by 2011 expansion Rallyman: Dirt, of which only 1,500 copies were ever released. The first print run of the base game and expansion sold out completely, leaving Rallyman and Dirt to become completely out-of-print for more than six years.

Holy Grail games, the publisher behind Rallyman: GT, has now announced that it will put out a new edition of the original Rallyman. Upcoming board game Rallyman: Dirt will combine the base Rallyman board game and Dirt into a single box, including the additional terrain types and tyre choices from the expansion. RallymanGT’s biggest selling points are itsreplayability, beautiful aesthetic, and depth of mechanics. Itsrulebook can feel heavyat firstbut once you’ve played a round or two it’sactuallyquite simple. Having said that, the real highlightof the gameis when a player gets to show their tactical guile. Leaveyouropponentshaving to pull offa daring move to catch up or compromise a manoeuvre to have the advantage of starting the next roundin a higher gear.It’s almost like a game of automotive chess! I can’t lie, I love motor racing. So it’s no surprise I would want to play Rallyman GT based on the theme alone. What is a surprise is how deep and tactical the game is, making each turn feel like a well-crafted puzzle. That element is what had my friends gripped, wanting to play again as soon as we’d finished. We’ve even arranged to continue with a championship, having races take place every couple of weeks! Every turn is a puzzle. You’ll work out how to use your available dice to get through the hazards in front of you, ending at the highest possible speed but with an eye to the course ahead. Other players are more an extra class of hazard than they are head-to-head opposition. Changingthe weather conditions flipping everyone’sdashboards, leavingeveryonescrambling todecide whether it’s worthpittingand changingtyres.The cars are each uniquely coloured and moulded to resemble their real-world equivalents. Each has a set of their own double-sided tyre dashboard cards (rain and asphalt) and gear markers. Dice representing gear, braking, and coasting, the round marker and pit-stop tile. A large number of tokens and a draw bag make up the rest of the box.